Re-poll at one Goa polling booth on February 7

Panaji: The Election Commission on Sunday ordered re-polling at one booth in south Goa’s Margao constituency on February 7, after balloting was called off on Saturday due to alleged failure of election officials to follow the set procedure.

In a letter addressed to the Goa Chief Electoral Officer, EC Secretary Sumit Mukherjee instructed that political parties and candidates be informed in writing about the fresh voting.

“Please ensure that wide publicity is given in the media and also by beating of drums in areas that come under that polling station,” Mukherjee said.

Voting at the polling station No. 8 set up at Government Primary School in Aquem, Margao, was cancelled after election officials posted at the booth failed to delete sample votes logged in an electronic voting machines. As per the standard procedure, these votes have to be deleted before the actual voting begins.

According to final figures given by poll officials in Goa on Sunday, overall voting percentage in the February 4 assembly elections (excluding booth scheduled for re-poll) was 82.23 per cent.

As many as 251 candidates were in the fray in Goa, where 11.10 lakh voters were eligible to cast ballots.